Last week I received an email from Sprint PR with the email subject including the word 'Framily'. I quickly deleted it thinking it was some stupidly named spam email, but as ZDNet's Rachel King wrote a bit later after I received the email the Framily plan is real and available now.

Last year, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon launched new initiatives designed to encourage people to buy phones more often. None of them are really great deals and in some cases are absolutely terrible as you end up paying twice for the phone. Sprint launched their One Up plan about four months ago, but confirmed it is now retired as they focus on the Framily plan offer.

The Sprint One Up page has several FAQs to help you understand the implications of killing this plan so quickly after launch with information on how to transition to the Framily plan.

In most cases, you keep your existing One Up agreement in place with conditions of the Framily plan kicking in after you upgrade a phone. If you make the transition, payments you made previously under the One Up plan also count towards the 12 installments on the Framily plan.

Despite the name that will likely have people thinking you just don't know how to use spelling correction, there looks to be some valid cases for using the Framily plan. It looks to be especially useful to larger families, or extended families, where the five line restriction of all other carriers limits who can be included on your plan.